1. Do NOT buy all your text books at once!

This is a pro tip picked up in my first semester of uni; don’t buy all your text books at once. Wait until you’ve been to a few tutorials and lectures to see which text books actually get used, and talk to your lecturer/tutor. The cost of text books stack up really quickly, and it sucks when you spend a few hundred on them only to find out you really needed one or two. This leads me to my next point…

2. Do NOT buy new text books (when possible)!

I know you like shiny new text books and the feeling of owning them. It’s a trap. Reach out to friends and you can usually get second hand text books for your course much cheaper. This also means you can connect with someone who has already done a particular unit, and get some inside info on what it’s like.

3. Do NOT over commit!

This is something I personally struggle with; over committing. If you’re like me and always bite off more than you can chew and consistently swim in the deep end: now is the perfect time to learn how to say no.

If you’ve picked up 2 summer jobs and are working 25–40 hours a week, you will likely need to quit one of them or reduce your hours drastically if you’re planning to do 3–4 subjects this semester. The last thing you want to do during a semester at uni is get to Week 10 and burn out.

4. Do NOT worry about the coming semester during holidays!

Relax! There will be plenty of time to worry about the semester after O-week. Now is not the time to think of assessment, how bad your timetable is or the semantics of making uni, work and a social life work together. Now is the time to relax, and look forward to the coming semester.

5. Do NOT be afraid of other students!

If you’re a first year student this year or even in your final year of study, don’t be afraid to say hi to people. 9 times out of 10 they don’t know what they’re doing either, and it helps to have a face smile at you in a lecture to make it go a bit quicker. It’ll also come in handy when the inevitable group assignment starts and you already have a familiar face or two to work with.

So, do yourself a favour and relax before going back to uni this year!

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This time last year I was midway through my final year of high school and had also just finished one of my first university subjects. Since there’s a few of you in similar positions I’m going to give you a heads up on what you can expect in the coming months.

For the grade 12s finishing this year, term 3 will be one of the most stressful times of your life. It’s a longer term, but the amount of assessment you need to do is going to really hit you hard if you don’t stay organised. The first few weeks of this term will lull you into a false sense of security, but make no mistake; by week four or five you should be on top of everything due in week six. The best advice I have for you is keep your parents updated, they will keep you accountable and give you a slight push when you need it. My second bit of advice is write up all the due dates for assignments as soon as you get your task sheets.

After term 3, term 4 will feel like a little bit of a joke. It’s a very short term, and people will try and tell you that the marks you get in term 4 don’t count towards your OP. It does. When term 4 comes around just keep doing what you’ve been doing all year. Don’t be lazy, because the people that do the work will beat you. As an example, I was ranked second in one of my classes with rank 1 being ahead all year. In term 4 he slacked off slightly when I didn’t and that was the difference between being rank 1 and staying in rank 2. So do not slack off and you could go up a few ranks which can make a difference to your OP.

The final thing I wished I knew last year is that graduating high school changes a lot of things. There’s the positive things like more independence, studying or doing what you’re passionate about, travelling and all the 18th birthday parties. Unfortunately, the negative side of this is that friends drift apart, you spend a lot more money, and you might feel like you don’t know what you’re doing with your life. And that’s okay, because 90% of the time every one else is winging it anyway.

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I took a gap year and decided to gain as much “non-academic” experience as I could. I completed a barrister/bartender course and worked days and nights in the only silver class restaurant in the middle of nowhere – Mount Isa. By the end of that year, I was reading every book I could get my hands on and I realised I missed the boring study environment! Now, of course, I find the studying environment inspiring and with the lingering scent of hot food (have you ever been to a uni library?).

I am absolutely glad that I took a gap year. I gained so much experience in the service industry, I had a chance to be with my family and I had a chance to miss studying! Now that I am back to studying, I enjoy every assignment and all the recommended readings with enthusiasm.

I’ve had my ups and downs during my gap year, but that year really matters to me now. I have something behind me, something that supports me in a new city without my family nearby – a real life experience…and a motivator not to be behind a bar making coffee all my life :p

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As my first blog post on the Student Sharehouse I thought I would entertain you guys with tips and typically awkward scenarios I experienced in my first year of uni. My first year of uni was a struggle for me, unlike high-school. University is a completely different experience. Let’s get the ball rolling!

O-week is essential!

Orientation week. This will be your first taste of the university institution. Even though it’s not technically a teaching week, it offers loads of seminars on academically important things like report-writing and referencing, but also has hundreds of university clubs waiting for you to sign up! Plus, you may even get some free merch, like a t-shirt, academic calendar and stationary! O-week is so helpful, so register for as many events as possible!

University sporting clubs and academic societies are worth it!

If your anything like me, you might be hesitant to join anything that’s not your usual classes because you might want to figure out the whole balancing classes and assignments thing. One thing I regret is not registering for a club. Uni isn’t just about study, the sporting clubs are a great kind of relief from the academic side of uni, whilst the academic clubs are a great starting point in meeting industry professionals and other likeminded people! This year, I’m apart of clubs, but do it in your first year also! If you find you cant handle the extra heavy, you can easily pull out.

Wanna desperately ‘fit in with the crowd’? Get a Macbook. 

No word of a lie. Imagine this: your sitting in your lecture hall, you look over your shoulder behind you and there are 100+ students with the glowing apple logo on the lid of their open laptops. Although, you may want to figure out what computer will be best for you. For example, for design students MacBook’s are the go, but for Business students any other laptop will do. It’s all about personal preference!

Figure out a way of studying that actually suits you

At university, you have about 3 hours per class of actual contact hours, this is not much at all to learn everything you need to learn for the week, extra independent study is required and it’s your responsibility to map it all out. Also, some students take notes in lectures on laptops, some write them out. For me, writing works better, I tend to grasp more information. Both ways have downsides. Chances are you’ll get a whole lot more distracted with a laptop what will all the free wifi; I’m talking about Facebooking instead of taking notes. With writing notes, you may miss some important information on a lecture slide that you cant write down because you weren’t fast enough.

Take your own food, that stuff is expensive!

Just like your degrees, pretty much everything is expensive at uni, including food! Sure, go ahead and buy $13 nachos from Guzman y Gomez but do that everyday and see how much savings you’ll have. Although, I’ll admit that the coffee prices aren’t that bad – at QUT anyway. But again, if you buy a coffee every morning your on campus, you’ll have spent around $300 – $500 on coffee in one semester. QUT has microwaves at literally every campus in nearly every building, so heating up food you’ve bought from home isn’t a problem.

Ew, public transport.

Make sure you have a train and bus timetable or access to the internet at all times. There’s nothing worse than sprinting from uni to the train station to find that your train literally just left the station and you have to wait another 30 minutes. Trust me. Also, make sure your GoCard’s are tip topped up! Again, there’s nothing worse than rocking up to the train or bus station 5 minutes before your train/bus leaves but you find you have no money on the damn thing, so you miss your mode of transportation again!

Get familiar with your university’s assignment submission policy

Sleeping, zombie-looking students

Brace yourself. Near mid-semester and the final exam period 99% of students look like a mess; myself included. You’ll encounter coffee-filled zombie students, sleeping library students or energy drink induced students that will eventually fall from that high and be very unattractive humans. It’s the truth, embrace it, you’ll probably be one of them.

Wear comfy shoes, don’t be one of those high heel wearing, blister getting girls.

Attention girls, probably the most important point in this whole post. It’s the definition of hell if you wear the wrong shoes.

Eat well, sleep well, drink plenty of water, have fun and meet new people. You’ll be fine!

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